I got a Nikon D3100 for Christmas and am still trying to learn to use it. I turned the auto setting off and tried to take action shots manually. I cranked up the speed quite a bit, but when I do the image is real dark. It is clear, not blurry, but very dark. What do I need to adjust other settings at to get more light?

jbcs16, That's kind of the curse of a fast shutter speed, you need lots of light. It makes tons of sense when you think about how cameras work.

All a camera does when it takes a photo is let light in through the lens/aperture to hit either the film or in the case of digital, the sensor that stands in place of the film. Long exposures let more light in, leading to brighter photos the longer you leave it open (but potentially blurred images if there's a lot of action). An increase in the shutter speed means the camera is letting a lot less light in, hence the darker image.

Give a high shutter speed a try on a really bright day and the photo will be a lot brighter. You could also open aperture up but if you don't have a lot of light to work with to begin with, it's not going to help a ton.

thanks for your replies. i will try your suggestions. The first time I tried the faster shutter speeds in was outside in the middle of the day is bright light. Still very dark. Since, I have played the aperture setting a lot and tried a lot of different settings. Think I have found a setting that works pretty good. Still have some blurring occasionally, but some really good pics too.

Just set your camera to Av or Tv priority. As you learn more about how different combinations of f stops and shutter speeds affect the picture you can go into manual shooting while keeping mind to your light meter.

Also remember to set your ISO to appropriate settings for the environment. 100 for very bright days. The higher the ISO the more sensitive the camera sensor is to light. But as you raise this setting you may encounter grain.

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